As he turned left onto Garfield Road in Macomb Township, Ryan Cornelissen could not have imagined how his life and the lives of three others would change in the next six minutes.

Cornelissen was flagged down by another driver whose wife had just given birth to a baby in the couple's car as they were speeding toward a hospital. The newborn was not breathing.

"He was standing in the middle of the road, jumping up and down, trying to flag me down, trying to get me to stop," said Cornelissen, 21, a Macomb Community College student.

The man, a Vietnamese immigrant, spoke little English. "My wife, my wife" he kept saying as he handed his cellphone to Cornelissen. On the other end of the line was Macomb County Sheriff's Department dispatcher Steven Kukuk.

Advertisement

A confused Cornelissen looked inside the car and saw the mother holding the baby, a girl wrapped in a blanket to protect her from the cold. He quickly alerted Kukuk that the newborn, with the umbilical cord still attached to the mother, was not taking any breaths.

It was a Friday morning, March 16, and a routine trip to the bank resulted in Cornelissen making life-and-death decisions. On the shoulder of Garfield, just south of 22 Mile Road, the 290-pound former Dakota High School football player was tasked with saving the life of a 3-pound, 8-ounce prematurely born infant.

A Macomb Township resident, Cornelissen is trained in three categories of CPR. But in the chaos of the moment, with the father panicking and cellphones ringing and cars driving past, Kukuk calmly instructed the young man in the proper steps to take.

"If I ever meet him, time and time again I am going to thank him," Cornelissen said of the dispatcher. "My mind was just racing."

The audio recording of the 911 call shows that Kukuk, a sheriff's dispatcher for more than five years, gave all the right advice: Keep the girl's head and neck supported, rub her back, inspect her mouth and throat to ensure that they are not obstructed.

Then, with the child still not responding, he warned Cornelissen that it was time to conduct "rescue breaths."

Kukuk explained to Cornelissen how to cover the baby's mouth and nose with his mouth and to blow breaths of air -- breaths of life -- into the tiny girl's lungs. The infant soon responded to the CPR, letting out a few whimpers. Her body heaved back to life.

An overwhelmed, relieved mother, father and Good Samaritan turned the situation over to paramedics who soon arrived on the scene.

In the aftermath, the parents didn't want their names released to the media. Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said information about the life-saving incident was not immediately made public because his department wanted to track down the hero and also to make sure that the little girl was going to survive. Because of her premature-birth status, the infant is expected to remain in Henry Ford Macomb Hospital for another four to six weeks as a precaution.

But the story did not end when the ambulance drove away.

On Friday, Cornelissen, still expressing humility regarding his actions, had the opportunity to meet the mother and father at their Macomb Township home. What followed, the young man said, was a "magnificent moment."

The thankful couple shared photos of their child, named Kiera. The pale limp girl who was thrust into Cornelissen's life now had color and vibrancy. The mother offered an extraordinary expression of gratitude.

"She wants me to be a part of the baby's life," said a proud Cornelissen, musing about the idea of suddenly having a very special little sister. "I'm completely in agreement. It's all pretty amazing."